Sales debate

What impact has coronavirus had on the Porsche marketplace?

‘Unprecedented’ is a word that’s been mentioned far too often in recent months, yet there’s no getting away from the fact coronavirus has heavily impacted every department of our lives in a way that was seemingly unimaginable at the back end of last year. We’re in new territory, with socio and economic ramifications not previously seen in our lifetimes.

We already know Porsche has, like every other business, been affected by the pandemic, closing its production lines for several weeks through spring. This will of course impact delivery schedules for customers waiting on their new Porsche, but what about the rest of the 911 marketplace? How has it fared in the wake of such challenging conditions? Unbelievably, according to two of our most trusted specialists, things haven’t changed too much.

“The market has paused. That is to say, values aren’t going up, but they’re certainly not going down,” says Karl Meyer of 2911 Porsche specialists, who uniquely buy and sell between customers and the main dealer network. “Dealers aren’t open so they’re not really buying cars at present. Some transactions are being done, but these are all subject to the dealers reopening, and they’re at sensible prices. Cars aren’t taking a hit in value as was widely anticipated by speculators.”

That view is echoed in its entirety by Jamie Tyler at Paragon Porsche. “Deposits have been taken on a couple of cars but otherwise everything has stopped, sellers being unable to sell and buyers being unable to buy. It’s not that people don’t have the money, they just physically can’t go and buy a new car at present,” he says, reaffirming that nobody has panicked and started reducing prices.

Generally, it’s good news – the value of your 911 hasn’t altered, though there’ll be no cut-price Rennsports flooding the marketplace anytime soon. In fact, both specialists predict a small boom in the marketplace once society returns to some form of normality. “Those selling a nearlynew Porsche will do very well, because when dealers reopen and begin taking enquiries for new cars, they won’t be able to give delivery dates for months due to the backlog Porsche will be working through at the production line. Consumers will therefore look at nearly-new cars in their droves,” says Meyer. Tyler agrees there may well be a feelgood factor where consumers will want to treat themselves in the aftermath – we hope that’s the case, as

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